The Software Sustainability Institute has published a report titled Digital and Professional Skills for Industry: Understanding Employers and Graduates Experiences. This report provides analysis into skills gaps for UK graduates as they transition into software engineering and data science roles within industry and the public sector. Drawing on qualitative data from 26 interviews with employers, recent graduates and industry stakeholders, we analysed perceptions of the skills graduates bring as well as skill gaps, and the causes of these gaps. Our findings did not reveal substantial technical skills gaps. Employers felt that widely applicable technical skills in coding and good foundations in maths and science were well represented in recruits. However, those technical skills developed through practical experience were less present. Employers were more concerned about the gaps they perceived in recruits’ professional skills: communication, teamwork, project management and commercial awareness were seen to be lacking. While large employers were able to address skill gaps, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) had more constrained resources, meaning they struggled to provide training, making workforce readiness more challenging in this vital part of the sector.